Athletes with more difficult majors are forced to radically redesign their lives. Social commitments lag behind those to athletics and academics.

"Sometimes it means taking an extra night of studying when everyone's going out," says hockey player Ed Presz '89, a computer science major.

Long road trips force athletes to study under difficult circumstances. It isn't easy reading Plato on a windy bus ride through the hills of upstate New York.

"I take books along on the bus, but it's like taking books during vacation," says Greg Ubert '89, who plays both football and baseball.

Presz has an even harder time on the road. Without a computer, he can't do his programming assignments. "It's tough because when you're on the road, that's the time other C.S. majors are doing their work," Presz says.

Some athletes are determined to make the maximum use of their time. For basketball player Ian Smith '91, life on the road is just like life in the library. "On every road trip I go on, I take my books--definitely," says Smith, a pre-med. "I study on the way there, I study before the game, I study after the game and I study on the way back."

Sometimes athletes must even take midterms on the road--a hotel room serves as a classroom and coaches as procters.

Demands of athletics and academics force athletes to budget their time efficiently. Some athletes even find it easier to fit studies into their schedules during the season.

"I'm not sure that athletics makes it more difficult to study," basketball Co-Captain Mike Gielen '89 says. "Sure, basketball takes a lot of time, but it has also taught me to be more disciplined with my time. I know that in the spring after the season, I'm not as productive with my study time because I don't feel the same urgency to do the work as I do during the season."

Others, particularly those fighting for a starting position, focus their complete attention on the sport. The sport becomes an obsession. "Once you're starting, you want to make sure you don't mess up," Reidy says. "You want to know the plays twice as well as everyone else. You're running even harder in practice because you don't want to make mistakes."

"For myself, when I'm trying to play hockey, I have to be totally focused on it," hockey player C.J. Young '90 says. "And that means sacrificing other things."

Athletes' attempts to meld both athletics and academics are not always recognized by their classmates. Even at Harvard, supposedly an enlighted institution, stereotypes of athletes--like the "dumb jock" label--exist.

"I think there's a conception as seeing the athlete as one-dimensional, as an athlete and nothing else," says Brita Lind '89, who plays both ice hockey and softball.

Ironically, these stereotypes are compounded by another stereotype of Harvard athletes as inferior to athletes at other schools.

Harvard athletes are frustrated by these stereotypes, which add extra pressure to their performances in the classroom and on the field.